Jessie Alice Andrews

     
     Jessie Alice Andrews was born on 20 Dec 1912 in Waitara, TNK, NZ.²
     Mum and Dad married on 30 Oct 1945 in the Whitely Church (Wesley), New Plymouth, TNK, NZ, having met at a St John's dance before Les went overseas during WWII. The wedding invitation to Alice's future in-laws read: "Mrs H Andrews request the pleasure of the Company of Mr & Mrs A Henderson at the marriage of her daughter Jessie Alice to Leslie Archibald Henderson at Whitely Church on 30th Oct at 1:30 o'clock and afterwards at Mon Desir. RSVP 23rd Oct to 15 Pukenui St, New Plymouth". The actual cert reads: Whiteley Memorial Methodist Church, New Plymouth, 30 October 1945, Groom:Leslie Archibald Henderson, 32, orchardist, bachelor, born Dunedin, present and usual residence, Roxburgh, s/o Archibald Henderson, linesman, & Agnes Manson formerly Davidson. Bride: Jessie Alice Andrews, 32, no profession stated, spinster, born Waitara, Present residence, New Plymouth, usual res. Christchurch, d/o George Ernest Andrews, carpenter and Honor formerly Rowe. Officiating minister, William Charles Jenkin. Witnesses: R R Davidson, 39 Hruon (?) St, Gore, joiner, (no relation, an army mate of Dad's) J H Schwarkfeger, 352 Armagh St, Chch, domestic. Registrars District of New Plymouth.^1,3,4,5,6
     Mum died on 23 Mar 2005 in Kenepuru Hosp., Porirua, WTN, NZ, at age 92; about 7pm after having had a major stroke some 3 weeks previous.⁷ A funeral service was held for Alice on 29 Mar 2005 at the Waikanae Funeral Home, Kapiti, WTN, NZ, at 10am, followed by cremation.⁷
     Alice Andrews and Tara are related as Tara is the direct maternal ancestor of Lorna, proven by a mitochondrial DNA test. Lorna's proven maternal ancestral line goes: Lorna (NZ), Alice Henderson nee Andrews (NZ); Honor Andrews nee Rowe (NZ); Emma Rowe nee Austin (Australia to NZ); Emma Gibson/Austin nee Clinton (London to Australia to NZ); Jemima Clinton nee Parker (Essex to London to Australia to NZ) with a further possible generation to Charlotte Parker nee Parkinson (Essex) and an awful lot more women who will obviously remain completely undocumented back from the 1760s to 15000 BC.
I see that Oxford Ancestors has one, and only one, direct match for my mDNA on their database although there are many other Tara descendants, including a lady in Auckland whose forbears lived in Essex and moved to London, just like mine, about the same time. Unfortunately, the direct match one hasn't chosen to share her contact details.^8,9
     Alice attended the Waitara School, TNK, NZ, fr 1918 - 1925 having started at age 5. She went back for 2nd yr in Std 6 after being promised high school maths teaching, but spent that year looking after the primmers instead. Alice was to be put forward for a scholarship to New Plymouth High School but her parents said no as they couldn't afford it. Used to walk to school (down a considerable hill) but occasionally got lift home in Lou Sarten's bullock dray (even though it was faster walking). Cattle used to be driven to the freezing works along this road, so they often had to climb into the paddocks to avoid them when on their way to school.^10,5
     Alice remembers Percy Ballantyne Sole and Albert Rowe the memory being prompted when I asked about a Percy Ballantyne Sole after finding a connection to another branch of the family:
     "Did you say Percy Sole?", she said. "I remember him. He farmed near Uncle Albert (Rowe) in Bell Block, and used to drove the cattle to the freezing works (at Waitara) past our place into the freezing work paddocks. We used to get good mushrooms from those paddocks, the ground was always well cropped and manured with all the sheep and cattle. He took our pet lamb away." Turns out that the lamb was getting a bit big and boisterous, used to bunt a lot and make a nuisance of himself when her Mum went to milk the cow. Percy called by to include it in a mob of sheep he was taking to the works but it wouldn't go. But it did happily tag along with a mob of cattle the next time he went past. As Mum left home at 15, this would have to be before 1927, and the memory of losing the pet lamb obviously lingered.¹¹
     In Feb 1931 Alice was working for the Jones' in Inglewood, TNK, NZ, as she was there when the Napier earthquake shook NZ. She can remember becoming scared of some mice she had disturbed when feeding the chooks, but more scared about the ground shaking, and the car rolling towards her with the ground moving.¹² After that she was working in the house for the Best's at Pukengahu, TNK, NZ, and remained in intermittant contact with the family all her life.¹³
     She also remembered Rewi Alley as a visitor to her parents (Ern & Honor Andrews). Rewi's uncle had married Annie Andrews, Ern's cousin, and this was probably 1937 as he is documented as having returned briefly to NZ in that year.¹⁴
     Fr 1940 - 1945 Alice and her sister Hilda were 'manpowered' during WWII together for about 4 years in Christchurch, CBY, NZ, this being where she met Dad.⁵ After their marriage Alice and Les were orchardists on a mixed fruit orchard in Coal Creek, nr Roxburgh, OTG, NZ, fr 1945 - 1972 . Fruit grown ranged from cherries through peaches, plums, greengages, nectarines, apricots (including Moreparks) to apples and pears. It was a wonderful place to grow up in. For the last few years of Nana's life, she too lived there (Dad's mother).¹³ Jessie Alice Andrews and Leslie Archibald Henderson were at Coal Creek, Roxburgh, OTG, NZ, cir. 1956 Russell remembers visiting the orchard when he was about 10, the whole family were on their way to stay in Queenstown.¹⁵ After selling the orchard Alice and Les moved to 2 Edinburgh St, Roxburgh, OTG, NZ, where they lived fr 1972 - 1995 until Dad died.¹³ Mum lived at 2 Branxholm St, Roxburgh, OTG, NZ, fr 1995 - Apr 2001 after Dad died, until she shifted north. (The Post Office decided that 2 Edinburgh St was really 2 Branxholm St even though neither the house nor the letterbox had shifted).¹³ Fr Mar 2001 - Jan 2005 Mum was living in Summerset Village, Guildford Dr, Paraparaumu, having moved north to be near me, after losing her drivers license because of failing eyesight.¹³ Fr Jan 2005 - Feb 2005 after a few health setbacks Mum lived in the Kena Kena Rest Home, Paraparaumu, having originally only gone there for some respite care to restore her health. She liked it so much that she decided to stay and was very happy there.¹³ Mum attended celebrations for the 50th Anniversary of the Roxburgh Branch of the Rural Women of NZ in Oct 2003 in Roxburgh, OTG, NZ, This was Mum's last trip back to Roxburgh, and is the source of the photo above (if you are reading the version of my web pages with photos!!).¹⁶
          This is the eulogy I had read out on my behalf at Mum's funeral:
     Mum was brought up in Waitara Taranaki as the third of 8 daughters, all of whom started work as soon as their proficiency exam was passed at the end of primary school. Alice went back as a pupil teacher for a subsequent year but couldn't take up the scholarship she won, as she had to go out to work. Her liking of cricket was formed in those early years as father Ern was a cricket coach - after all he nearly had a team of his own.
     For the next few years she worked around Taranaki before going to Christchurch with her sister Hilda shortly after the start of the war. There she met her soldier, Les, at one of the many dances at the time. After marrying at the end of the war she was then thrown into orchard work in Roxburgh, a long way from her Taranaki upbringing. Life was hard but she never complained, even when it involved getting up in the middle of the night to light frost pots to try and save the young fruit. I'm sure the succession of orchard workers appreciated the lovely smokos of sandwiches and sultana cake or shortbread that were served up twice daily.
     After retiring from the orchard in the early 1970s she and Les moved into Roxburgh into a new house they had built, and she could begin enjoying her hard earned leisure.
     She travelled all over Otago and Southland for indoor bowls, including as a rep. and I often received phone calls telling of her latest championship victory. After moving into Kena Kena just a few short weeks ago, she was rather dismissive of the bowls on offer, just carpet bowls, not truly indoor bowls. That defect aside, she was happy at having moved to Kena Kena from her Villa. Lovely food, lovely people, 'I think I'll stay here" she said after a few days of respite care.
     She had a lifelong interest in crochet, knitting and sewing. I think she furnished the entire population of Otago twice over with doll and baby clothes via the Roxburgh Craft Shop, which she used to help run. She also did some lovely work for me, the tablecloth on the coffin is her work.
     Another passion was cards. Mum introduced me to cards at a young age, taking me with her to housie and euchre evenings up in the Roxburgh Hydro Hall. These politically correct days I would probably be banned from such subversive activities as I would have been well under my teens. She was very fond of patience, always on the lookout for new forms (even took to the computer versions with amazing rapidity), and played 500 and euchre with great skill. I seldom managed to beat her at euchre. Perhaps that's why I took up bridge instead. When we were looking around for a suitable retirement village up here, one of the prime requirements was a social life that included housie, bowls and cards, happy hours didn't matter to her at all as she was tee total. I was going to say completely tee-total, but I have known her to drink Pimms at socials, unaware of the gin base. As she also never drank tea or coffee, she was the despair of her doctors in trying to get her to drink enough fluids.
     Mum's lucky streak never did rub off on me mores the pity. If there was a raffle, she won it, housie participants would get used to her familiar voice calling 'house' or 'line', and I got very used to helping count up and bank the jars of 5c pieces of her loot. Lotto and scratchies were her weekly ritual, and she generally won something.
     Although she was not outwardly religious, I do remember that if the Minister was in the shop, she wouldn't buy her art union ticket until he'd gone.
     After 56 years in Roxburgh, at age 88, Mum amazed me by readily upping sticks and moving north to be near me. I don't think I'd have that energy at that age. The shift was prompted by the loss of her driving licence and ended her deliveries of meals on wheels "to the old folk". So she sold the car and got a mobility scooter. "Speedy Gonzales" became the terror of Summerset Village, and looked rather funny beetling around at a great rate of knots on her scooter, especially as she could hardly see over the handlebars.
     Mum and the phone were joined at the lip. The phone was her lifeline to the outside world. She kept in touch with her Roxburgh cronies with very frequent phone calls, but also with those much closer. One person recalls arriving at her Villa to find her at the bedroom window, in view of the neighbour at her lounge window, both on the phone discussing the neighbour's cat who had ventured into Alice's bedroom.
     Mum, you brought me up to be as honest and practical as you were. Even if I did fail on the knitting/ sewing (and alcohol) front, I hope I live up to your example on the rest, even though I cannot make cream puffs and fudge as nice as yours.
     Thank you Mum, it was great having a chance to get to know you better when you moved up here about 4 years ago, I am really going to miss you, but I know you weren't happy after your recent stroke.
     Rest in peace.¹⁷